First and Second Generation Devices – “Settings” > “More” > “Device” > “Allow Installation of Applications” and ensure it’s set to “On“.

Open the Kindle Fire web browser and download the APK file. You can also transfer APK files from your computer by connecting the Kindle Fire to the computer with a USB cable.

Open the notification area (top bar). It should show that the .APK file is downloading. Tap it once the download has finished.

Select “Install“.

FAQ

Why is the “Install” button grayed out?

Amazon released an update that does this sometimes. You can usually get around it by pressing the square button next to the circle home button. Then go back to the install screen. Doing that will light up the Install button.

Some people say that using the “Back” button instead of square then returning to the install screen works to light up the Install button.

How to install Google apps on Kindle Fire HD or HDX

Here's how to install Google apps on Kindle Fire HD with no rooting required

One of the main reasons to root your Kindle Fire is so you can install the Google Play Store and have access to apps that can't be found in the Amazon Appstore. But if you're worried about voiding the warranty or dealing with the rooting process in general, you can sideload apps. The cool thing about this technique is it doesn't require you to root the device first. Here's how to get most of the Google apps on your Kindle Fire HD or HDX.

For this article I'm using the latest 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX, which runs Amazon's customized version of Android 4.2. This should work the same on the 8.9-inch version too. Keep in mind that when sideloading these apps, not all of the features will work correctly. For instance, on the Google Search app, the Google Now cards don't load like they would on a Nexus 7 or other Android device. All of the APK (the Android application format) files offered here are free, malware free, and free to distribute.

What is sideloading and how do I do it?

Sideloading is the term used to describe installing an app on your Android device from a source other than an official app store. Basically, what you're doing is transferring an APK file from your computer to your tablet or smartphone and installing it directly. Since the Kindle Fire runs a forked version of Android, this is a common practice to get the apps you like on the device.

Before you can sideload an app on the Kindle Fire HD or HDX, you need to enable the feature that allows you to install apps from unknown sources. To do that, go to Settings > Applications and make sure "Apps from Unknown Sources" is turned on.

Next, download this zip file and extract its contents to a convenient location on your computer. The zip file includes the four essential apps you need to install first.

Connect your Kindle Fire to your computer using the included micro-USB cable and transfer the four APKs you just downloaded to your Kindle's Download folder.

Make sure you have ES File Explorer on your Kindle Fire. It's free and available in Amazon's Appstore. This will give you access to the APKs you transfer to your tablet. You'll find the files in Local > Home > Download.

Now perform the following steps in order:

Tap to install Google Account Manager and reboot the tablet.

Tap to install Google Services Framework and reboot the tablet.

Tap to install Google Play Services and reboot the tablet.

Tap to install Gmail and reboot the tablet.

Installing Google apps

After those four apps are installed, open the Gmail app (you'll find it listed under the Apps section on the Kindle Fire) and sign in with your Google account. After signing in at the screen shown below, you'll be kicked to the web version of Google to sign in again.

When you're signing in, you'll see various messages about different Google services stopping. You can just tap through them. This is one of the caveats with sideloading Google apps and running them – the apps will still work, it's just kind of annoying having the occasional alert pop up like the one in the screenshot below.

Once you're signed in, you'll be able to run the Gmail app on your Kindle Fire. Here's an example of it running on my Kindle Fire HDX.

Now you can continue to sideload the Google apps you want to use following the same process as above. Transfer them to the Download folder on the Kindle Fire, just like you did with the first set of apps.

Open ES File Explorer, open the Download folder, and tap to install the Google apps you want. For best results, I recommend installing one app at a time and rebooting after each one.

Summing up

You can find other Google app files in Android forums or an APK repository site like Android Drawer. A word of caution about sideloading apps: Ensure you're getting them from a trusted and secure source. Some apps – especially the ones that claim to give you paid apps for free – in the shady markets contain malware that will wreck you device. We don't condone sideloading paid apps, and in the end it will just get you into trouble. But as long as you're careful and download the apps from a trusted source you should be ok.

While some of the app features don't work the same as on a typical Android device, and the error messages that pop up are a bit annoying, it isn't a deal-breaker. As long as you're able to overlook those caveats and live in the Google ecosystem, sideloading the apps is something you should definitely try.

Thursday, November 30, 2017

Design can never be static. Every project is different and so is the process that varies as per the product, personal preferences, team size and other relative variables, but when it comes to tools, you will find only a handful that is every designer’s pet. These tools pave the way for planning and brainstorming, help in clear communication of ideas, solve technical troubles to build mind-blowing animations and even sort interactions with the developers. Over the years, the app designers have worked relentlessly to refine their design tool kits so that they can fasten the workflow and execute right design decisions.

These tools pave the way for planning and brainstorming, help in clear communication of ideas, solve technical troubles to build mind-blowing animations and even sort interactions with the developers. Over the years, the app designers have worked relentlessly to refine their design tool kits so that they can fasten the workflow and execute right design decisions.

Yes, evaluating various extensions, plug-ins, tools and online resources have somewhat become necessary for the design cycle. The team must craft out high-performance mobile app solutions and make it a hit in the digital market.

For this, it is important to have some of the easy-to-use design tools that can transform your raw ideas in the most creative way and can collect useful feedback at an early stage of mobile app development. Here is a list of some of the amazing mobile app design tools, which will render your workflows, screens and pitches more robust with each project-

1. Sketch

Although Photoshop is a personal favorite with the designers, still some have made a switch to Sketch. This super graphic design tool possesses similarity to Photoshop but is more focused on UI/UX design. The tool is powerful, has a wide range of features and brings out professional results. It extends infinite zooming, 2x export, and styled vector shapes which are apt for multiple resolutions. Sketch offers an ‘Export All’ feature and as it is vector-based, there is no problem in exporting PDF, JPG, and PNG (optionally in 2x) files.

Generally, app designers prefer 3 different tools for 3 purposes namely Omnigraffle for wireframing, Photoshop for visual design, and Illustrator for vector logos. All these 3 tools are perfectly aligned with Sketch, thereby making one app fulfill all your needs and achieve overall productivity with no wastage of time.

The sketch is suitable to use owing to its simple operation and the feature which can design the symbols of common elements like buttons, tabs, headers etc with ease. It not only fires up the process of wireframing but also enables an easy hand-off to the visual designers. As we are employing the same tool in the visual design stage, there won’t be much trouble in updating wireframes into high-fidelity visuals.

All the changes that we have witnessed in-app designing have been made possible because of Sketch’s vectorized model, components like multi-resolution exporting and shared styles and symbols.

2. Marvel

The Marvel app converts raw sketches on paper into engaging, tappable prototypes that permit you to demo your app ideas and collect feedback from others. It works perfectly well with .psd files, so you are not required to convert your designs before uploading.

Marvel saves the testing time consumed on changes as it automatically updates them in the background. By replicating the device, the web browser can successfully test your prototype very much in the natural milieu.

Leading you towards most realistic prototyping experience, this tool also gives the benefit of custom animations and fading between screens. Marvel, being an interactive tool, enables designers to import from Sketch, build prototypes of app interactions, animations, and transitions, and further forward these prototypes with stakeholders and developers. It is a convenient way to open up an entire flow to the customer as well, without being bothered by the static user flows.

Here, designers don’t have to be equipped with advanced programs like Framer and After Effects to include animations, transitions and other interesting features in their app layouts. Marvel permits any designer to form transition-based animations over various app screens speedily. The tool is used to prototype an entire app, especially the one with basic transitions in a large number of screens.

3. POP

If you found the Marvel app useful, but you are in search for a working prototype compatible with your Android device, POP app is what you need. It is the best application for mobile prototyping and makes the transition from paper to digital prototyping very easy. All you need to do is to take pictures of your sketches to upload them to POP, or simply upload .psd files to Adobe Creative Cloud. After this, you can smoothly shift between views, gestures, and interactions. As POP is integrated with Dropbox, thus there won’t be any trouble sharing your work with others.

What makes POP app different is that it commences with the images of your hand-drawn app sketches and connects them together onto your mobile. There is no visual constraint in the app as your drawn prototype is compatible with any device.

4. UXPin

UXPin is an intensive wireframing and prototyping web tool. Its simple interface and built-in features make you assimilate a design and create highly interactive wireframes and prototypes. Having drag and drop synchronization with Photoshop and Sketch, this tool systematizes the workflow keeping all the layers of the design intact. To execute design decisions, usability testing is also present which can help to perform tasks, count the users and their clicks and display results to the team.

UXPin adds efficiency to the design, testing, and rollout stages. Here, there is a dynamic toolkit that consists of various design elements and patterns for creating brilliant designs from scratch. The UI libraries are a great source with several ready-made features including bootstrap elements.

The drag and drop interface of UXPin enables you to build wireframes and prototypes that are compatible with multiple devices with a range of screen sizes and resolutions. Other powerful components are the intuitive commenting system, real-time joint editing and easy-to-share previews. A spectacular add-on is Smart Guides, wherein you can measure the exact distance between the elements.

It is possible to edit all the images within UXPin, i.e., you can change brightness, sharpness, contrast and transparency with ease. The tool also gives the advantage of exporting the finished prototype to pdf, HTML or png formats. Thus, you can successfully execute interactions that can improve the performance of the entire project. The UXPin library supports all the three platforms-iOS, Android, and the web.

5. Proto.io

A great zero coding wireframing tool, Proto.io makes highly engaging prototypes that have the look and feel similar to the mobile apps you are building. Also, this tool can be utilized for testing your prototype designs on multiple devices. Another gripping feature of Proto.io is that there are actions which add to the efficiency of the application. Some of the fascinating features are Dropbox sync, Adaptive UI libraries, Material Design UI Library and Offline mode etc.

Here, you can have swift screen transitions, make orientation changes or touch gestures and even test each prototype on any device iPhone, iPad or Android to suit the complete purpose. Initially intended for mobile apps, Proto.io has found its markets in other emerging internet-connected devices like smart TVs, refrigerators, alarm clocks and cars, gaming devices and Google Android Wear. It is a fairly functional app for the designers as they can incorporate quick changes and further, pass on the prototypes to other members conveniently.

6. Zeplin

Zeplin is a plugin and web app that is compatible only with Sketch. It combines all the attributes of the shortlisted elements into a collective specifications sheet, which clearly explains the handoff between the design and developer teams. With this app, you can frame living, breathing, and interactive specification sheets. Zeplin is useful as the designers are not required to wait until the end of the design process to hand over the specs to the developers.

7. Axure

If you are looking to create fully interactive UI mockups and wireframes, Axure is the wireframing tool just meant for you. Being a zero coding platform for wireframing websites and applications, Axure consists of all the documentation tools that are needed to pass the design choices and document the layouts.

You can opt for either the Standard edition or the Pro edition which has extra collaboration and documentation elements. It is indeed the largest application devised for advanced prototyping solutions. Speed is the best characteristic of Axure as you can quickly form prototypes of responsive websites and mobile applications.

You can easily add interactions, make Master pages and choose ready-made elements and patterns from Widget libraries. Additionally, you can import images, add colors, gradients and maneuver the transparency of each object. The version 7 of Axure supports excellent framework that has unique web fonts, events, string functions and convertible prototypes.

8. JustInMind

A wonderful prototyping tool, JustInMind allows better and faster prototyping for websites and mobile apps. Created in 2008, the best feature of JustInMind is that it can be downloaded to your computer, not the just browser, which gives the option of working offline. Not only you can design self-explanatory wireframes, but receive feedback on the same instantly. Being a dynamic prototyping tool, JustInMind is accompanied with a superb widget library that permits you to enter HTML, videos, online widgets, docs, interactive maps and online/offline content in your website or application.

From websites to advanced administration, the application does its wonders for everything you want to create. You can add elements from UI libraries and build Master pages easily. A big merit is that you are able to download add-ons through ready-made modules, which has bootstrap elements too. Also, now conveniently share mobile prototypes with other team members and conduct testing on your smartphone. Simplicity works in favor of JustInMind, but there are times when a lot more is expected from the performance.

9. HotGloo

HotGloo is a robust wireframe UX prototyping tool that gives you the control to prototype any type of mobile application which needs a particular user interface. Developed with extraordinary interactive features, HotGloo allows more than one app designer to collaborate on a single app wireframing project. Through this tool, you can work on your wireframing project anytime anywhere around the clock, without the barrier of the browser or operating system you are accessing.

Last Note

Wireframing is one of the most significant stages of website/app development process and you just can’t ignore it. The tools mentioned above will definitely quicken your design process, thereby giving you more time to refine your design with pleasant touches. These mobile-focused design tools will churn out systematic and easy to understand mockup/wireframe for your application, so that you can deliver delightful results. Remember, right approach always pays off as users appreciate intuitive or natural experience any day.

Friday, November 10, 2017

Get started with UI Tests to automate User Interface tests in iOS 9

Apple announced a new technology called UI Tests, which allows us to implement User Interface tests using Swift or Objective C code. Up until now the best way to achieve this was to use UI Automation. With UI Tests it’s possible to properly debug issues using Xcode and use Swift or Objective C without having to deal with JavaScript code.

First, you’ll have to create a new target for the UI Tests:

Under the Test section, select the Cocoa Touch UI Testing Bundle:

Now open the newly created Project_UI_Tests.swift file in your Project UI Tests folder. On the bottom you have an empty method called testExample. Focus the cursor there and click on the red record button on the bottom.

This will launch your app. You can now tap around and interact with your application. When you’re finished, click the red button again.

The generated code will look similar to this. I already added some example XCTAsserts between the generated lines. You can now already run the tests in Xcode using CMD+ U. This will run both your unit tests and your UI Tests.

You could now already run the tests using the CLI without any further modification, but we want to have the UI Tests in a separate scheme. Click on your scheme and select New Scheme.

Select the newly created UI Test target and confirm.

If you plan on executing the tests on a CI-server, make sure the newly created scheme has the Shared option enabled. Click on your scheme and choose Manage Schemes to open the dialog.

Xcode will automatically generate screenshots for each test action. For more information about the generated data, take a look at this writeup by Michele.

Next Steps

To create screenshots in all languages and in all device types, you need a tool likesnapshot. snapshot still uses UI Automation, which is now deprecated.

I’m currently working on a new version of snapshot to make use of the new UI Tests features. This enables snapshot to show even more detailed results and error messages if something goes wrong. I’m really excited about this change 👍

Update:snapshot now uses UI Tests to generate screenshots and the HTML summary for all languages and devices.